A Game of Chess
by Cygna-hime
Summary: In England, Eriol and Kaho play a most interesting game of chess to prepare for their upcoming task.


**Here she is again, with yet another random challenge story. She still has others she wants to type, but she(and you) will have to wait. If you care, she has decided that Past Is Prologue will probably not be continued for a long, loooong time. She plans to write a prequel-type thing which will be ever so long and ever so slow in the writing. She'll get back to you.**

**Challenge courtesy of Tsukimineshrine once again. 'Games', 1500 words or thereabouts. At least two characters must play a game which must have a prize/penalty. Cannot be Truth or Dare or any variant thereof.**

**She has done it. She wrote it in about an hour and a half. Fear her MIGHT!**

**What is there to warn? Ah. This is random, takes place between the Judgment and Eriol. If you're really good at guessing, may contain spoilers for Master of the Clow. Definitely contains weird chess and symbolism.**

**A Game Of Chess**

****

            Eriol drew his chair up to one side of the little table. His opponent smiled, serene as always.

            "Well, Eriol," she began, "what's going through that crowded head of yours this time?"

            "Is it important?"

            "Why yes, I rather think it is. What are you up to?"

            "Kaho, I'm hurt!" he laughed. "Don't you trust me?"

            "Of course not! I know you. You may have forgotten, lucky you, but the last time _you_ behaved this way _I _spent two days getting caramel custard out of the rhododendron patch. Forgive me for not wanting to repeat the experience." Eriol smiled at the memory.

            "That did get a bit out of hand, didn't it?" he said. "Fear not, Kaho, this time it's nothing so sticky. All I had in mind was a simple game of chess." The noise Kaho made would have resembled a snort if it had been made by someone a trifle less dignified.

            " 'A simple game of chess'? Now why on earth do I not believe that? Could it possibly be because I have never yet known you to be simple when you have that look in your eyes? I do believe it could. What have you to say to that?"

            "Since you seem to be half a step ahead, as usual, I may as well confess. I feel like doing a bit of foretelling. This means seemed appropriate to the setting. Care to join me? It's rather pointless with one." Kaho smiled.

            "Yes, I think I will. You will play for yourself, I trust? I feel inclined to play as the white queen. The winner gets to know the score, the loser…has to do the dishes."

            "You do them anyway. That's not fair."

            "This was your idea, so it is fair."

            "At the risk of sounding childish, it is not. However, I do not intend to lose in any case. Shall we?"

            "Indeed we shall." The chessboard lifted itself from the mantelpiece and floated down to rest neatly between them. Kaho picked up a white pawn and moved it two spaces. "So it begins."

~          ~          ~

The game began deceptively slowly, a game of pawns quickly being exchanged for each other. Soon Eriol had lost four pawns and Kaho six. Then Eriol opened his offensive. The attacks of his bishops were brutal, he saw, yet strangely ineffectual. Although Kaho lost one bishop almost immediately, she more than made up for it by eliminating both of his attacking rooks.

            To amend his mistake, Eriol moved one of his knights to oppose Kaho's. He didn't notice until almost too late the rook supporting her knight and barely managed to retreat undamaged. He made a mental note to pay more attention to that area.

            Kaho smiled and neatly removed his queen from the board, thereby opening her own up for attack. There was no way it could have been accidental; she had initiated the sequence, she knew the sacrifice she would inevitably make. Apparently she considered it worthwhile to remove both queens.

            As the endgame approached, Kaho began carefully removing Eriol's minor pieces, placing her own in an apparently random pattern. By the time a pattern began to emerge, with most of her pieces converging on the center of the board, she was left with her knights, rooks, bishop, and a single pawn. Eriol was in a much worse state; his knights and bishop were all he had left.

            In a bid for maneuverability, Eriol took Kaho's bishop with his own. He would have taken her queen's knight, as well, but a white rook rose unexpectedly in his path, giving her knight a chance to deal with his while the bishop was occupied in capturing it. As he exchanged his last knight for hers, Eriol realized he was done for. He made a brief attempt to move his king out of the way before resigning himself to accept a loss.

            It was not long in coming. Kaho moved her pawn, the one he had all but encouraged to advance, the last space to place it on the last rank of the board, tidily beside his king. It was over.

            "Pawn becomes queen and checkmate," said Kaho, her voice the only sound since the game began. Eriol smiled and leaned back in his chair.

            "A most explanatory game, don't you agree?"

            "Entirely. For one thing, it explained that there's a stack of pots in the kitchen calling your name."

            With a groan Eriol rose and left. Kaho watched after him for some time, a peculiar smile on her lips.

            "Most explanatory indeed, Eriol, most explanatory indeed."

--End—

**Okay. If you understand the workings of my mind really, really well, you may know who/what some of the pieces are. I would quite like to know if anyone understands me that well.**

**I did, in fact, dig out a chessboard for this. If something makes no sense, then remember it's a predictive game so they have to do things a certain way. I love that.**

**I think that's all. This is actually my first piece with Kaho in it. Was she hopelessly OOC? Please let me know.**


End file.
